Have You Ever Eaten Dandelion Greens?

During WWII, I started my freshman year at an all girls high school in Baltimore, MD. With my father in the Army Engineers in the Aleutians, my grandfather doing his bit as an air raid warden, my mother playing piano at a USO (I was there, too, making sandwiches in the kitchen) and my brother collecting tin foil and scrap metal, we were all involved in the war effort. Except for our “Victory” garden where the peas and beans didn’t win. One morning at my new school we were all issued spoons and sent out to the lawns where we were told to dig up the dandelions. It seemed the landscapers had gone to war. We were extremely disappointed that the boys’ high school across the street had not been invited to join us. The up side of this educational exercise was that we were served the dandelion greens for lunch to show how we could contribute to the war effort and our health as well. Years later I was chastised by someone working for me for throwing out “those weeds,” poke salad and dandelions which were “good eatin’”. Lesson not learned.